Living Eye Judging Method and Living Eye Judging Device

Abstract

An eye (EY) of a person to be shot is illuminated coaxially with the optical axis of a camera (11), and then, is shot. At this time, a retinal reflex is caused and the luminance in the pupil region becomes high if the eye (EY) is a living eye. A living eye judgment section (17) judges whether an eye included in the image is a living eye is performed based on the luminance in the pupil region of the image captured by the camera (11).

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 540,060 filed on Jun. 22, 2005. The entire disclosure of the above application is incorporated herein by reference.TECHNICAL FIELD[0002]The present invention relates to generally called a living eye judgment for judging whether an eye included in an image is a living eye or not for preventing false authentication of one which is not a living eye, for example, in iris authentication.BACKGROUND ART[0003]In recent years, a personal authentication technique utilizing iris images has been started to be used for entrance / exit management in a restricted building, bank ATMs (Automated Teller Machines), PC login applications, and the like. Especially, the method disclosed in Patent Document 1 has already gone commercial in all over the world and is becoming a de facto standard method.[0004]In the method disclosed in Patent Document 1, an iris region is cut out from an image o...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0017]According to the present invention, the pupil region in an image obtained by shooting a living eye with illumination coaxial with the optical axis of the camera has high luminance by the retinal reflex. On the other hand, no retinal reflex is caused in a photograph, a printed imaged and a counterfeit eye, so that the luminance in the pupil region is not so high as that in a living eye. In this connection, judgment as to whether an eye included in an image is a living eye or not can be performed easily based on the luminance of the pupil region in the image.

[0019]In this invention, in a case of a living eye, the luminance in the pupil region is high because of the retinal reflex in the first image obtained by shooting the subject with illumination coaxial with the optical axis of the camera and the luminance in the pupil region is low in the second image obtained by shooting the subject with illumination of which optical axis is different from the optical axis of the camera. In short, a large difference is present in the pupil region between the first and second images. On the other hand, in a photograph, a printed image and a counterfeit eye, not so large difference in luminance is present between the pupil regions of the first and second images as in the living eye. Accordingly, the judgment as to whether the eyes included in the images are a living eye or not can be performed easily based on the luminance of the pupil regions in the images. Further, no luminance difference is present between the first and second images even in the case using a photograph and a printed image including an eye upon the retinal reflex, and therefore, accurate judgment is attained.

Problems solved by technology

In personal authentication using iris images, there is a possibility of false authentication of a photograph of an iris or a counterfeit eye.

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